Why do so many of us persist in doing nothing about
global warming? Blame it on psychology.
If only global warming
were caused by ISIS declar-
ing a “weather war” on the
west, perhaps by glee-
fully releasing 18 tons of
greenhouse gases into the
atmosphere every day and
gloating when droughts,
deluges, heat waves, killer
storms, wildfires, or floods
ensued. That might incite
more people to get upset
about it.
In fact, global warming
is increasing the frequency
and severity of all those
events, as well as raising
sea levels. But it comes from
something quite different
from an evil-looking ter-
rorist. The sources—such
as power plants, vehicles,
farms, and factories—are
impersonal and invisible,
and close to home—the
way we use energy, not the
machinations of a foreigner.
Faced with a threat with
these attributes, the brain
reacts with an unimpressed
meh: Our minds evolved
to detect and respond to
threats that have certain
features, and global warm-
ing has none of them.
In terms of getting
people to care about
Climate Change: A Faceless Villain
global warming enough
to demand a government
response or to take per-
sonal action, “you couldn’t
design a problem that’s a
worse fit for our psychol-
ogy,” Andrew Leiserowitz,
director of the Yale Project
on Climate Change Com-
munications, told me.
Countless polls have
documented the lack
of concern about global
warming and the result-
ing climate change, which
threatens to exact an enor-
mous financial and human
toll. The Yale Project’s
2015 survey, for instance,
found that about 16% of US
adults are die-hard cli-
mate deniers, rejecting the
Sharon Begley is a senior science
writer with The Boston Globe Media
Group, author of Train Your Mind,
Change Your Brain, and coauthor
with Richard Davidson of The
Emotional Life of Your Brain.
scientific research that has
documented how the rise
in greenhouse gases from
human activities (primarily
burning coal, oil, and natu-
ral gas) is trapping heat in
the planet’s atmosphere and
altering Earth’s climate.
While another 63% believe
(correctly) that global
warming is happening, only
48% believe (also correctly)
that it is due to human
activities. Just 41% know
that the vast majority of
climatologists have reached
that conclusion. This has
been widely and repeatedly
reported in the media, so
when people say they do
not “believe” these facts, or
don’t care about them, it →
18 mindful December 2015
brain science
Illustration by Sébastien Thibault